Murder of Anjelica Castillo

Anjelica Castillo, previously known as Baby Hope, was an American four-year-old girl from New York who was murdered in 1991. Her body was not identified until 2013. The case received national attention due to the young age of the victim and the manner of her death. After her identification, Castillo's cousin, Conrado Juarez confessed to murdering the girl. Death: Castillo was apparently tortured and starved before her murder, for which her cousin, Conrado Juarez admitted to later raping and sodomizing the child and then smothering her. The child was bound to a table in Juarez's apartment and deprived of water during multiple occasions. She had been staying with Juarez due to her parents' separation, and had been in her father's custody at the time of her murder. Juarez was originally going to only rape Anjelica, but then suffocated her with a pillow after she cried out. Soon after she died, her body was placed in a cooler, which was disposed with the help of Juarez's sister, Balvina Juarez Ramirez, now deceased. Her mother, Margarita Castillo, never reported her missing, stating that Anjelica's father had taken their children after they ended their relationship. Margarita also suspected that he may have taken the girl to Mexico with him, as she never returned. She was unable to communicate in English, which also affected her decision. Margarita Castillo did claim that she and her family had searched for her daughter but were unable to locate her, but she was still subjected to a large amount of criticism and anger from others. Other reports reveal that her family also neglected to report her missing as some of the family members, including her mother, were apparently illegal immigrants. They feared that if it was discovered that some were in the country illegally during the course of an investigation, they would be deported. Discovery: Anjelica's decomposing body was discovered inside a blue cooler along the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan, New York. These conditions contributed to the initial lack of identification, as her face was not recognizable. Her body was found naked and had been bound with both rope and a Venetian blind cord. She was placed in a fetal position with her hands pressed together. The body was then wrapped in a garbage bag and placed inside the cooler, which was filled with unopened soda cans and water, which was presumably ice at one time. Examiners concluded that the then-unidentified girl was possibly Hispanic, had dark, wavy hair in a ponytail, was malnourished, weighing 28 pounds (13 kilograms), and a victim of sexual abuse. She was initially estimated to have been between three and five years old. After examination was completed and the case remained unsolved, police provided fees in 1993 to have the victim buried after a public funeral was held. A casket was donated to bury the victim and a funeral service was held to the public. One of the officers who was investigating the case gave a eulogy. Two hundred people attended. Investigation: After the victim's remains were found, a witness told authorities that she had seen a Hispanic man and woman carrying a cooler in the location prior to the discovery, around the time the girl was estimated to have been murdered. In autumn of 1991, images of a nude child were located in New Jersey, which were believed to possibly have been that of the victim, as the girl in the photographs matched Anjelica's description. Anjelica's body was exhumed in 2006 and 2011 to obtain DNA information, which would later be compared with DNA from her mother, Margarita Castillo. Authorities reopened the case in 2013 and requested information from the public, which led them to Castillo. This occurred after an anonymous woman told authorities that she had overheard a conversation two years prior between a mother not knowing what happened to her daughter and another person. After she was identified, a sign with her name was placed on her headstone, which was marked as "Baby Hope." Her father was believed to be involved in her death, until her cousin, Conrado Juarez, was arrested. To date, Castillo's father has never been located, but is believed to reside in Puebla, Mexico, and may be unaware of what happened to his daughter. Identification and arrest of Conrado Juarez: "She wasn't missing; her father took them [her children] away and maybe that was my mistake, let him take them away. I did not go to the police because I was afraid of not being heard. I was afraid, not knowing the language." -Margarita Castillo, mother of the victim. Until 2013, the two suspects in the case of Baby Hope were never found. It was not until Conrado Juarez, fifty-two, was arrested after being questioned by police when he was located working as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Manhattan, New York. Juarez was initially believed to have traveled back to his native country of Mexico before his arrest. He was thirty at the time he committed the crime. He was subsequently charged with felony murder. Police stated that they are also fearful of possible additional victims of Juarez. When first interviewed by reporters, Margarita Castillo refused to show her face but spoke through a closed door. She gave her explanation of why Anjelica was not reported missing and also described her devastation when she learned of the fate of Anjelica and her anger toward Juarez. She was subjected to criticism throughout the community for not reporting anything about Anjelica's disappearance. Some members and friends of Anjelica's family had never known she had existed. Castillo's sister, Laurencita Ramirez, spoke to news reporters about the case. When she was eleven, she learned about Anjelica's disappearance, but the two had never met. Ramirez stated that she was not familiar with the Baby Hope case until 2013. She did, however claim that she saw a resemblance between the victim and herself and wondered if the then-unidentified victim was her missing sister.